Kamal Ahmed
Economics editor

It seems that Number 10 agreed the idea of review of Hinkley Point C “in the last few days” – which is the reason why the Chancellor, Philip Hammond, sounded so bullish about the plans last Sunday.

Although I am told there were “various discussions” about how to handle the Final Investment Decision when it came from EDF, nothing was finalised until the last minute.

Some might say that is almost like being caught off guard by the arrival of Christmas.

But, reassurance is the word that is being used by my sources, not cancellation – not yet anyway.

More from the FT's Paris bureau chief:

Douze points to whomever thought up this quote for John Sauven, Greenpeace executive director: "Theresa May now has a chance to stop this radioactive white elephant in its tracks. She should look at the evidence and see that this deal would be a monumental disaster for taxpayers and bill payers."

Image source, Getty Images

Two former executives of Anglo Irish Bank have been jailed in Dublin after being convicted of conspiracy to defraud. John Bowe and Willie McAteer (pictured) misled depositors, lenders and investors by making the bank's corporate deposits look larger than they were. 

McAteer has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years, while Bowe was jailed for two years. Their co-conspirator, Denis Casey, the former chief executive of Irish Life and Permanent (ILP), was given two years and nine months. 

The fraud involved so-called circular transactions that were intended to disguise the true state of the bank's financial health. In 2008 Anglo loaned €7.2bn to, ILP, which then placed the same sum back with Anglo. 

The transactions were accounted for on Anglo's balance sheet as customer deposits, rather than an inter-bank loan. Deposits are a key factor in assessing the market's and consumer confidence in a bank. 

The prosecution said the accounting had been a "dishonest scheme" designed to mislead the people who would be looking at the bank's published accounts. 

Anglo Irish Bank had to be rescued by the Irish government in 2009 at a cost to Irish taxpayers of about €30bn (£23bn).

More from the FT's Anne-Sylvaine Chassany:

Business presenter Victoria Fritz has been analysing the eurozone growth stats: 

The FT's Paris bureau chief tweets:

Carrie Gracie
China editor

While others may be professing astonishment over the British government decision to delay this deal on the eve of signing, the Chinese stakeholders are too polite - for now.

Despite putting up a third of the funding and sending a delegation to the UK to celebrate what they along with everyone else expected to be the final launch ceremony for the project, a statement from China General Nuclear Power Corporation or CGN expressed understanding

Read more from Carrie here.

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Shares in the beleaguered Italian bank Monte dei Paschi have jumped by 7% in Milan after reports of a last-minute rescue plan by Swiss bank UBS, arranged by Corrado Passera, the veteran Italian financier.

The Siena-based bank, which is famously the world's oldest, is struggling with a burden of bad debt - loans that are unlikely ever to be repaid fully.

Later today, the results of a "stress test" carried out on European banks will be published and Monte dei Paschi is expected to be hit hard.

Kamal Ahmed
Economics editor

When you are chancellor, you tend to know pretty much everything that is going on in government.

So the fact that Philip Hammond told me at the weekend that Hinkley "will go ahead" raises a whole host of possibilities, from the intriguing to the mundane.

Read more from Kamal here.

Image source, Getty Images

Eurozone growth slowed in the second quarter to 0.3%, with analysts warning that the consequences of Brexit could harm the economy further later in the year. 

Eurostat said economic growth in the 19-nation bloc halved in the three months to 30 June - far weaker than the 0.6% expansion in the previous quarter. 

Our business presenter tweets:

David Cheetham, market analyst at XTB.com, has this to say about Barclays:

You may not be familiar with a company called Essentra, external, and frankly, we had to Google it too (sorry Essentra). But we now know that the FTSE 250 company supplies plastic and fibre products.

We also know that its shares have crashed more than 20% today after fairly alarming half-year results, external, which shouted: HY 2016 IMPACTED BY A NUMBER OF CHALLENGES (HY is corporate jargon for half year, by the way).

Investors failed to be reassured by chief executive Colin Day's claim that the company "remains fundamentally strong, with global leading market positions in end-markets with positive growth characteristics, and attractive levels of profitability and cash generation".

The stock is now down about 40% this year.

Image source, Getty Images

We heard from former Labour MP Tom Greatrex on Radio 5 live earlier, but the chief executive of the Nuclear Industry Association has more to say:

“The Government’s decision to take longer to look at the contract do not change the fundamentals – that by 2030, two thirds of our electricity generation capacity will have retired, and we need to replace it with low carbon and reliable power for the future to improve our energy security and meet our commitments on carbon emissions targets.

“The most important thing is that the board of EDF and its investors have the finance in place to enable them to give the go ahead for the project and that is very good news. We have a strong UK supply chain which has built up its capability and has trained people so they are able to build and operate Hinkley Point C.

“We now need the new ministers to quickly endorse the decision to show they are serious about industrial strategy, building new infrastructure by securing inward investment to create our low carbon energy supplies of the future."

AB InBev, the world's biggest brewer, says total sales volumes fell by 1.7% in the three months to June, hurt by a poor performance in Brazil, which is suffering due to a slumping economy, political uncertainty and the Zika virus outbreak.

The company, which is in the process of merging with SABMiller, also took a massive $1.77bn charge to hedge against foreign exchange volatility that intensified in the runup to the EU referendum vote last month.

That sent net profit down to $152m for the quarter, compared with $1.93b in the same period last year. 

Times leisure correspondent Dominic Walsh tweets:

Image source, Audi

Pre-tax profits at Audi fell 8.5% to £2.67bn in the first six months of the year, and it expects the rest of the year to be muted too. That's partly due to the ongoing diesel emissions scandal at its parent company Volkswagen, and recalls of cars fitted with potentially dangerous Takata airbags.

Audi also said there are "risks" to its business by the Brexit vote, but that it can rely on its "global market presence to compensate for potential regional fluctuations in demand".

Vorsprung durch diversification, if you will.

Today business editor tweets:

Shadow International Trade Secretary, Labour MP Barry Gardiner, tweets his outrage at Hinkley delay: